Online Resources to Enhance K-12 U. S. Government Instruction

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CHECK THESE OUT!!

April 10, 2008
by WPS Media Specialist David Privett

Below are some online resources I have located
through peer recommendation, professional journal recommendations,
and some I have just come across through my own searching. In an
attempt to keep this page as up-to-date and useful as possible,
please report all dead links or new links you would like added to
dprivett@esu2.org.

U. S. GOVERNMENT
(K-12)

NetTrekker (Subscription
Database)(See Mr. Privett for user name and password)

NetTrekker d.i. (differentiated instruction) offers
access to more than 180,000 educator-selected online resources
organized by readability level and aligned to Nebraska State
Standards. A great resource for teachers to use to enhance their
lessons, and for students to review classroom content in all
subjects and all grade levels! CHECK IT OUT!!

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(PLEASE DON'T BE AFRAID
of these government-sponsored sites! There is TONS of great
information available at these sites for classroom use!! BILLIONS
of taxpayer dollars are used annually on government publications,
in both print and digital formats, and much of this information is
published directly for teacher/student use. Please take some time
and go through these sites for activities and other enhancements
for your lessons. I can almost guarantee that there's something for
everyone. If you can't find anything, let me know, and I'll help
you look!)

America's
Story"Students can find out what
Abraham Lincoln had in his pockets the night he was assassinated;
read about Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West shows; learn about
the heroism or Harriet Tubman as she helped slaves escape; find out
what a 'cloth sandwich' is; or see a film of a break dancer way
back in 1898. Young students can also learn what happened on the
day they were born, or go to Explore the States if they are working
on a report on one of the United States. They can also send a
postcard to a friend and play a scavenger hunt. This site does a
great job of making history fun for young students."

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BAM!"A site created by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This site is subtitled
'Body and Mind' and it enables students to become Disease
Detectives and learn how to track down the source of diseases, or
they can click on 'Whiz Kids' and read about the health habits of
athletes from many sports. Or they could go to 'Braggin' Rights' to
post their own story about keeping their mind and body healthy.
There is also a section called Str8 Talk that answers tough
questions about peer pressure, relationships, smoking, and more. A
'Teacher's Corner' link gives tips for using the page with
students."

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Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for
Kids"Once you arrive at 'Ben's
Guide,' you will see Benjamin Franklin flying a kite with the kite
divided into four different grade levels: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.
Click on the grade level appropriate for your group of students,
and you will be taken to a site that explains in many different
ways how our government works. The K-2 site, for example, has
information on 'Your Neighborhood', 'Ben's ABCs', 'Symbols of U.S.
Government', and 'Games and Activities' that can be printed or used
interactively. The grades 6-8 site has links to 'Historical
Documents' (Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights,
Emancipation Proclamation, among others), a description and
pictorial process for 'How Laws are Made', information about the
'Election Process', and 'Games and Activities' appropriate for this
age group. Each of the grade-level sites also has a link to the
Ben's Guide's version of FirstGov for Kids that is titled U.S. Government Web Sites
for Kids. Like FirstGov for Kids, this directory also has a
subject approach, but in addition, the user can click on 'Agency'
or 'Alphabetical' to have the links organized. The site for
'Parents and Teachers' tells 'How to Use Ben's Guide as a Learning
Tool', lists 'U.S. Government Publications for Sale', and gives a
number of 'Curriculum Links' that take teachers to lesson plans and
resources they can use to develop or enhance their own units of
instruction."

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FirstGov"The U.S. government's
official web portal, priding itself on having something to offer
all users. Teachers at the high school level will be able to find
information for use in classroom discussions having to do with
money and taxes, public safety and law, the environment, and health
issues, to name just a few of the topics included."

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FirstGov for Kids"A good place to begin to
find resources for students in grades K-8. This site was developed
and is maintained by the Federal Citizen Information Center, and,
aside from federal government sites, this site includes links to
some of the best sites from organizations for kids. One advantage
of this site is that it is arranged by broad topics, such as Arts,
Careers, Computers, Fighting Crime, Fun Stuff, Geography, Global
Village, Government, and so on, encompassing 20 subject areas." All
nongovernmental sites linked in FirstGov for Kids comply with
the regulations in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of
1998." If you are looking for a topic that is not covered by one of
the 20 broad topic areas, use the "search" option. "From the
FirstGov for Kids page, click on 'search', type the subject in the
search box, and add the word 'kids'. For example, typing in
'dinosaurs kids' results in more than 30 options."

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Global
Gateway"From here, you can link to
'Portals
of the World' where students are presented with a list of more
than 175 countries. The links for each country have been selected
by area specialists and other Library of Congress staff to provide
authoritative and in-depth information about the
countries."

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Google Uncle Sam"Google Uncle Sam is a subset of Google, and it takes users to
federal and state government pages."

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GPO AccessA service of the U.S.
Government Printing Office that provides free electronic access to
a wealth of information products produced by the Federal
government. (Suggestion: try "Browse Topics" under "Federal-wide
Resources").

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H.I.P. Pocket Change"This site is sponsored by
the U.S. Mint. If they click on 'Games' and then on 'Cents of
Color', children can color a quarter--either the one in use for
years or one of the new commemorative quarters from the states
where these have been issued. Clicking on 'Info' gives information
about why the different images were chosen for each of the new
state quarters. Another fun-and-challenging game, even for adults,
is the Golden Dollar Puzzle, in which the user is given 3 minutes
to put together a jigsaw puzzle of the golden dollar. Or, select
'Puzzle Mint' to see jigsaw puzzles of the new commemorative
quarters. On the 'Cartoon' page you will see a cartoon on the
'Birth of a Coin', or you can click on 'Coins of the World' and
learn how coins from different nations are sometimes like our coins
but can also look very different."

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Library of Congress"a gold mine of information
in many curricular areas. You will find a link from its home page
to 'American Memory' that
provides a way to locate primary source materials pertaining to the
history of the United States. Students can choose from more than 7
million digital items (documents, photos, maps, films, and sound
recordings) from more than 100 historical collections to learn
about a certain time in American history. 'The Learning Page' is a link for
teachers that provides lesson plans on U.S. history, civics, and
literature topics, ranging from grades 4-12."
YOU COULD EASILY LOSE A COUPLE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE EXPLORING THIS
SITE!

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NASA Kids"Learn about the earth, the
sun, or the evolution of space travel. Play Connect the Stars and
Make a Constellation, or learn about rockets and airplanes.
Sponsored by NASA, this site also has several other children's
links listed. The Just for Kids
site for students in grades K-12 is sponsored by NASA's Johnson
Space Center. It gives information about how astronauts sleep and
work in space and also lets users become virtual
astronauts."

Nebraska
Public Documents is a collaborative effort between the Nebraska
Library Commission, the Nebraska State Historical Society, UNL, and
UNO. This project provides free public access to digitized historic
annual reports of state agencies in Nebraska for the use of
students, scholars, and the general public.

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Students.govFor "students who are
thinking about going to college and are wondering how they should
prepare for college, or how they will pay for their college
education. From this site, students learn about options in distance
education, read how to find and apply for college loans, and learn
what's involved in military service and the educational benefits
that are available through the different branches of the armed
forces."

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Statistical
Abstract of the United States"Includes almost 1,400 tables
taken from both government and nongovernment information services
in order to include statistics in areas the government does not
count.
"If you have students who need statistics on the number of teenage
drug users or the number of people who currently smoke--broken down
by male, female, black, white, and then by age group within these
categories--they can find this information on this site, along with
figures on teenage homicide rates, the number of teenagers with
AIDS, statistics for teenage pregnancies, the number of kids who
bought sound recordings on CD-ROMs or cassettes, the number of
teenagers in the labor force, and how many teenagers participate in
sports activities, to name just a few of the topics included."
Includes information from federal on down to the state level.

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THOMASAnother link on the Library
of Congress page. For "students who are tracking legislation at the
federal level or who are interested in finding out what bills might
have been introduced on a certain topic. This always-changing site
includes databases that allow the following searches: *the House
floor this week and on a current legislative day; *a quick search
of the text of bills in the current Congress; *summary and status
information about bills and resolutions since 1973; *public laws by
law number since 1973; *House and Senate roll call votes since
1990; *Congressional Record index since 1993; *committee reports
since 1993; and *current House and Senate directories. Information
on how laws are made in both the House and the Senate, a summary of
congressional activity from 1969, and links to historical documents
that formed the foundation of our country from 1774-1789 are
provided on this site. New materials are added daily to many
databases, and the bill text files are updated several times a
day."

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The U.S.
Government Manual"Useful to those studying
civics or political science. This is the official handbook of the
federal government, and it provides information on the various
agencies of the federal government and also the quasi-official
agencies, as well as the international agencies with which the U.S.
government does business. Each listing gives a brief history of the
agency, tells its role in the government, and describes its
programs and activities. The principal officials along with their
phone numbers are also listed."

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The
World FactbookThis is an easy-to-use
almanac that is published by the CIA, offering detailed information
on all the world's geographic and political entities. A great
resource for study on foreign countries and
governments.

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The above
summaries in quotation marks are from the following
source:Williams, S. Q. (2005, June).
Government documents go to school. Teacher Librarian, 32(5),
8-13.